Reads: Well Being by Danielle Copperman

Since launching her food blog, Model Mange Tout in 2014, entrepreneur Danielle Copperman has gone from strength to strength. From building a transatlantic business with superfood breakfast staple, Qnola, to modelling for the likes of Vogue and Chanel, Copperman shows no signs of slowing down.

The qualified nutritionist has since added another string to her bow, becoming author of her debut publication Well Being all before the age of 25. To ensure you kick your new year off with a bang, the title hosts a combination of Copperman’s most valued rituals, recipes, and top tips for more mindful lifestyle choices. Drawing from age old traditions, each page caters to modern day needs, enhancing positivity and diminishing stress.

After an indulgent festive season, we for one can’t wait to experiment with new holistic rituals and interchange our daily dietary habits, embracing a positive mind-set as we jump into January.

Get your guide to Well Being below.

Tell us in a nutshell what your book aims to do.

Well Being provides simple and accessible rituals and recipes. Each ritual pin points the best methods to reduce stress quickly and effectively, with techniques ranging from pranayama breath work, tapping, meditation, journaling and self-massage. The recipes are all natural and aim to improve digestion, reduce stress, improve skin and hair condition, as well as elevate energy levels, with some recipes providing cleansing and detoxifying benefits. In a nutshell, the goal intention is to reduce the side effects of modern life by diminishing stress, elevating energy levels, improving digestion, enhancing concentration and encouraging positivity.

Who do you think will benefit from reading it and why?

Hopefully anyone and everyone will benefit, but primarily those who suffer from the side effects of modern life. The book contains recipes to energise the body and mind, while also considering digestion. All incorporate ingredients that heal from within, cleansing and detoxifying, but also help to adapt the stress response and hormonal imbalances. The rituals give guidance on how to energise the body on a physical level and improve digestion and metabolism.

With over 250 recipes and rituals in the book, how did you go about compiling them? Are they all from your own personal life and experiences?

I have been developing recipes for years, since I first changed my diet and began my blog, so I had a lot of content and notes filed away. I am always experimenting with new things, but the content in the book is a combination of staples from my daily dietary habits, as well as things I’ve trialled and loved the most.

At first, it was difficult to lay them out in the most useful and simplified way. As a resolution, I grouped them, dependent on what would best support particular times of the day. In the Daytime section, for example, the rituals are grounding and energising. In the In Between Time section, the rituals enhance concentration and focus. And in the Nighttime section they reduce stress, quieten the mind and encourage deep relaxation.

There’s been a lot of interest and critique about the ‘clean eating’ trend in the last year or so. How does your book set itself aside from this? What is your ethos when it comes to eating?

My book is not about clean eating and doesn’t focus on living a ‘clean’ lifestyle. Sure, the recipes are ‘clean’ in that they don’t contain any processed or artificial ingredients that may be seen as ‘unclean’ or ‘unhealthy’, but there is no focus on what not to eat. The recipes are all naturally gluten free, vegetarian or vegan and don’t contain refined sugar, but that’s not to say the reader can’t substitute or add things like bread, pasta, meat or sugar. By providing rituals and recipes for beauty and home treatments, I hope to emphasise how food is not the only factor for wellbeing. The book sets itself aside from other ‘clean eating’ books because it provides an insight to other factors of life than influence the way we look, feel and act, in a holistic, 360 approach.

How have you managed to juggle your book, Qnola and model work whilst writing it?

It been quite balancing act, and as with everything, there has never been a moment of equilibrium unfortunately, but I have learnt the importance of checking in regularly to recalibrate and prioritise efficiently. I have a great team behind me driving Qnola, and it has been super easy to write the book between castings and modelling jobs or in some cases, whilst traveling to jobs or during lunch breaks.

Tell us a little about how you got into nutrition and yoga in the first place and the journey that got you to where you are.

I first got into nutrition at the age of 19/20 after living away from home and modelling full time. It was the first time I started to notice tiredness, a colourless complexion and difficulty managing weight. I began working out a lot and did a lot of research into nutrition before eventually taking a course. Whilst becoming more active, I then got into yoga and, although I hated it at first, I soon got hooked as it was helping reduce the stress of modelling and setting up Qnola. Yoga instilled a sense of holism within and I began to notice how everything is linked, and that sparked my interest in discovering more ancient traditions that remain relevant and required today.

How does your book encourage a more sustainable lifestyle?

The book encourages adopting more sustainable habits both in food as well as beauty and home. It offers guidance in making natural beauty treatments and home solutions such as atmosphere spray and natural surface cleaner, and this of course reduces the need to buy these things so much. It also encourages home cooking, which again is more sustainable than buying lots of packaged or pre-cooked foods. The book also contains information and advice on making more sustainable lifestyle choices, such as reducing waste, buying locally, and much more.

What’s been your proudest achievement to date?

I was incredibly proud when Qnola made it onto the shelves of Selfridge’s food hall as our first major stockist, and then Waitrose as our first supermarket. I have also been incredibly honoured to work with so many incredible and inspiring people in fashion, including walking in my first major catwalk show for Dolce & Gabbana earlier this year.

What do you do to unwind?

I do a combination of things, from listening to music, watching movies and reading, to yoga, meditation, sound healing and, pranayama. I also spend time with friends, which I find super grounding and nourishing in so many ways.